May 22, 2013 (Wednesday) Afternoon
While it's summertime there in Manila in May, it's springtime and super cold here still in Hokkaido. It's the time for cherry blossoms, lilacs, lavenders, tulip and many more to bloom week after week. This week they are holding the annual Sapporo Lilac Matsuri (Festival) at Odori Park. The flowers are a bit late so we only saw a few but we immersed ourselves for one whole afternoon in the making of different Japanese arts and crafts for the event. We met some wonderful Japanese volunteers who introduced us to Chigiri-e (the art of tearing Japanese paper to make a picture), the art of making Japanese ornaments (in this case, a snowflake) from wheat, origami and getting ourselves drawn by "manga" artists. Time really did fly so fast during this wonderful day.
